The Russellville Democrat., 1887-12-14
sNAKE5slfE ANrlno1E.
An opportunffy fof s0lzltbody te Render q
 Great Service to Science.

Au Oppurfuufy TOT 8u14EDouy 70 MVHNeF q
 Great Service to Science.
 Somo years ago Dr. !. B. De Lacarda, .
 learned scientist of Brazil, conducted q number of experiments with the purpose
 of discovering an antidote for the poison of venomous serpents. He at last tried as 8 chemical antidote permangannte of po-
 tessium injected Into the bite, and met with wonderful success. The result of his and at the time his brochure attracted considerable attention among scientists. Some discredit was, however, thrown upon his experiments by an attempt to re- peat them in France, which was an abso- luts failure. Believing that there wns a good deal of truth in what Dr. Do Lacerda claims, Dr. Narrow, of the. Smithsonian Institute, has, according to q Washington correspondent, undertaken series of experiments with the poison of rattlcsnakes, intending to use tho permanganate of potassium as an antidote. Various herbal prepara- lions, having the reputation among coun- try folk of being remarkably efIicacious in cases of snake bite, will also be tried, and q fine specimen of 'smad-stone,1 popniarly supposed to be possessed of great virtue in such cases, has been procured, and will be tested, in order to set at rest once and forever the conflicting opinions on this much debated subject. Dr. Narrow has procured four fine specimens of rattle- snakes from Loudon County, Virginia. and during the past week he has been col Iccting from them quantity of their venom. The manner of doing this was as follows: Taking long stick, to the end of which was scurely fastened n broad leather strap, he confined the lat ter loosely about couple of inches from the end of the stick so as to make a loop below which could be drawn tight. Armed with this instrument he caught the reptiles one by one, by passing the loop over their heads. An as- sistant then held thin stick, to the end of which was attached piece Of cotton wool saturated with glycerine, to the mouth of the snake and he was made to bite the wool, which soaked up the venom emitted freely by the angry creature as 1t buried it's fangs in it's inanimats enemy. The poisonous virus having thus been ex- tracted from the serpents it was soaked out in an ounce of glycerine, and the op- eration repeated on the following day. A drachm and Q half of venom has thus teen secured, or more than enough to kill thirty men. The experiments will be con ducted on pigeons and rabbits. A certain quantity of virus, sufficient to kill, will ue hypodermically injected into pigeon as the first experiment. Then a little more than was enough to kill will be in- iscted into another pigeon and immedi- stely followed by an injection of the per- of potassium, which it is be- lieved will prove an nntidote. The ex- l .II ing varying spaces of time to elapse be- sween the injection of the virus and tho application Of tae antidote. In this con uection, Dr. Narrow is anxious to find man who would like to be bitten by rat. ;iesnake in the cause of science, and who would be willing to take his chances of surviving the experiment. Should an an tidote for snake bite be found by Dr. Yar- row in the course of these experiments, he will confer an incalculable benefit upon mankind.